Entries in China
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Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) with Lien Chan of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party

President Promotes Cross-strait Ties with Taiwan

President Xi Jinping met with Lien Chan, the visiting Honorary Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, Lien Chan at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday.

The Kuomintang were the long-time rulers of China before the Communist Party took control in 1949, moving to the island of Taiwan after the Revolutionary. China does not recognise an independent Taiwan, claiming it as part of "one nation", but does maintain a relationship with the Kuomintang.

In the first meeting between senior officials after the 18th Communist Party Congress, Xi expressed his hope that those on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can cooperate:

If the brothers are of the same mind, their sharpness can cut through metal.
"We sincerely hope Taiwan can develop along with the mainland and compatriots from both sides of the Strait can join hands in realising the "Chinese dream".

To establish his authority, President Xi Jinping must maintain China's economic development while dealing with the "flies", the local officials who have recently faced allegations of corruption, and the "tigers", the senior officials in central Government who may see Xi as a threat to their power.

Can he succeed? And, perhaps more importantly, how will he attempt to do so --- with strong public moves for reform or with a more cautious approach within the Party, even as he cultivates his image with the Chinese people as their representative against corruption?

Facing economic challenges in mainland China, some newly-married couples from wealthy families have looked elsewhere for a better future for their unborn children: one with quality medical services, educational opportunities, and the security of good, healthy food.

For several years, Hong Kong --- formally part of China, with a similar culture and a lower cost than alternatives --- was the preferred location. However, in October 2011, residents began to protest against the increasing number of pregnant women from the mainland, whom they claimed were taking benefits without paying taxes. They called on the Hong Kong government to stop issuing birth certificates to the “foreign” newborns. Since 1 January 2013, the hospitals will no longer accept bed reservation for babies whose parents are neither local residents.

Those Chinese who did not want to give up the dream came up with a solution: why not go to the US? However, they are now finding that there is not necessarily a clear boundary between an American Dream and an American Nightmare.

In a possible test for new Chinese leader Xi Jinping's views on media freedom, the political effects continue from censorship of the leading newspaper Southern Weekend, after authorities banned a New Year’s editorial, “Chinese Dream, A Dream of Constitutionalism”.

An open letter signed by prominent academics has called on a top propaganda official in southern China to resign over allegations that he unjustifiably censored the comment.

The letter by the academics threatened to undermine the Communist Party’s effort to put away the editorial, but authorities have held the line. Southern Weekly was forced to announce that the published editorial was not tampered and apologise for some "spelling mistakes" in a rush work. The Central Propaganda Department ordered mainstream media to carry an official editorial from the Global Times, a party-controlled newspaper, saying any reference to wide-spread version of “constitutionalism” had been a mistake and also spoke of manipulation by outside powers. When Beijing News refused to carry the official editorial, it was threatened with dissolution.

http://goo.gl/XsVBo EA's James Miller speaks with Monocle 24 about US arms sales. This past year, the United States drastically increased arms sales last year. While the US is often the number 2 or 3 seller of global arms, in the last year the US accounted for 79% of global arms sales, with the majority of those arms being sold to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies...

2030 GMT:Syria. At least initially, the greatest threat that the Syrian crisis poses to the region has nothing to do with terrorism or chemical weapons or cross-border firefights, but has everything to do with the massive amounts of refugees flooding some countries, particularly Turkey and Lebanon, but also Iraq and Jordan. As fighting is heating up in Damascus, the amount of refugees in Lebanon has rapidly risen to an extraordinary number:

Between 8,500 and 30,000 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon in the last 48 hours, an agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said at a news briefing in Geneva. The new flood adds to an exodus of more than 112,000 who have already registered as refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, and many thousands more who have fled but not registered. United Nations relief agencies say three-quarters of them are women and children, often arriving in a desperate state with no more than the clothes they are wearing. Internally, as many as a million people have been displaced, according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

1942 GMT:Syria. The Free Syrian Army has engaged the Assad military in heavy fighting in the city of Zabadani, northwest of Damascus (map), for the second day in a row today...

China made history last Saturday when it launched a spacecraft sending the nation's first female astronaut into space.

The Long March 2F rocket, carrying the manned spacecraft Shenzhou IX, took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province in northwestern China. Inside the capsule was Liu Yang, 33, with commanding officer Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang.

At the sending-off ceremony, Wu Bangguo, the head of China's legislature, saluted the three astronauts, "The country and the people are looking forward to your successful return."